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Friday, November 29, 2013

Should Race and Culture be Off-Limits in Comedy?

Image by Gage Skidmore

Having lived in Korea for nearly 5 years now (and married into a Korean family for over 3 years), the way Korea and Asia as a whole is portrayed in Western media and the entertainment industry and the reaction to this portrayal has been something that has interested me quite a bit. I can remember the kind of picture that was painted for me before I lived in Korea and now I can actually analyse whether there is any truth and fairness to how they do it. However, as to whether some of the material put out there is offensive and wrong - and if so how we should deal with it - well that appears to be a matter of some debate.

The entertainment industry is an area where the subject of racism towards Asian people comes up frequently in the field of comedy. Let's first focus on Seth Macfarlane, who has come in for a fair bit of criticism recently for some of the scenes he promoted for his new sitcom "Dads" - weeks before the pilot even aired - because of its use of some Asian stereotypes as a subject for humour. Many have also argued that the show that made him famous, Family Guy, also has gone too far and stepped over the line (numerous times) into racism, not just of Asians but other races too.

I actually agree with the conclusion in the piece in the Atlantic that anti-Chinese (and even Asian generally) racism is a greater problem than many people realise in the West. As I wrote in a post on my own site a couple of weeks ago, I myself was shocked at how people in my own country treated my wife when I lived there for a year with her. There is a big taboo on criticising or making fun of race and culture in the UK, but it doesn't seem to be helping much in alleviating people's ignorance on the matter and making Western countries free of prejudice. I do believe the taboo on race and culture has reached the limit of its effectiveness and it is time for some honesty and open dialogue.

Jimmy Kimmel and the Dutch judge on X-Factor appear to be pretty cut and dry examples of attempted comedy that is not funny and that stepped over a line. With the Dutch judge it is easy to see why he was wrong, he simply discriminated against another human being, treated him differently, made a joke of him as an individual in front of the audience, and made him and everyone else feel mightily uncomfortable as a result. With Jimmy Kimmel, the joke was bad taste, but the fact that such a nasty thing was uttered from the mouth of a child also probably helped push the joke into being something wholly distasteful.

When it comes to comedy generally, however, I do see a great many issues and it is not clear to me how best to handle things and where to draw lines, if that's indeed what we need to do.

Being Offended by Possibly Racist (in fact any) Jokes is Almost Always Counter-Productive
The minute people become offended by something, when it is presented as comedy, they run the risk - 90 times out of 100 - of only benefiting those they are upset with. If you are the member of any sports team, you may learn to pick this up quite quickly. The producers of "Dads" played the game perfectly; they got their exposure on the news and had people talking about the new show. When the show actually aired its first episode the probability is that more people tuned-in. Of course, they ran a fine line between notoriety and a ban, but if they had agreed this plan of action to their broadcaster beforehand, there was very little risk of that actually happening.

The other reason becoming offended works in the comedian's favour is that the jokes they make only end up being funny precisely because of the potential offence they might cause. If it could be plotted on a graph, one would see a steady upward curve showing a correlation between a joke's potential hilarity and its level of offensiveness, perhaps until you hit a subject that truly isn't worthy of humour and then the line will become a sudden precipice, the Holocaust for example, although even that is not completely untouched territory. Even AIDS in Africa can be manipulated by comedians to get laughs. Now I am not supporting these kinds of jokes (especially the AIDS one!), but the reality is that if a bunch of people get offended by them, it is more than likely a comedian has done nothing more than forwarded their career.

The sad fact for those who wish to rid the world of racist, culturalist, sexist, ageist, or in fact any bad taste humour, is that there is nothing less funny than political correctness and taboo and nothing funnier than breaking it. Offence simply feeds the desire to produce more of it and if you go down the road of constantly banning and monitoring everything, we end up living in a world lacking freedom of expression, controversy, one that is devoid of a sense of humour, and the ability of people to grow their own thicker skins and defend themselves (this is arguably already happening in the West). A good way to combat it is to confront stereotypes head on and expose them, and it turns out that comedians are often some of the best qualified to do this too.

Another way to kill a subject fit for humour is to make it commonplace, dull, uncontroversial, and tired. To do this, those on the receiving end must brush it off. It sounds a pretty insensitive thing to say in this day and age when we all worry about not offending each other and just getting along, and when some people are more vulnerable than others, but it is simply being pragmatic. Offence is like a defibrillator to a flat-lining joke that brings it back to life again and again.

Many a True Word is said in Jest
Trawl through some clips of Family Guy on youtube, for example, and one can find a large number of little sketches on Asian stereotypes. Here are a few examples:

On all of the above clips I think I can safely say I have known many Asian people born in the UK who are nothing like this and indeed many Koreans who are not like this, but the reason they are quite funny is that I have also known a considerable amount of Asian people during my travels that have fitted each of these stereotypes rather perfectly, far more so than people of a Western background. They are generalisations about behaviour, but they are - it must be said - quite accurate when it comes to identifying patterns of behaviour in at least some Asian people, especially those who were not brought-up in a Western country, let's be honest.

What I would really love to see is a comedy program created in a non-Western part of the world that has similar themed gags about Westerners, especially White people. Perhaps I could even suggest a bit of material for them; licentiousness (especially when drinking), being over-weight, arrogance, dumb kids, reality TV shows, clinging to the past (UK in particular), bad dancers, slow runners, lazy workers, ruining beautiful parts of the world, etc. What most of these categories and the Family Guy videos on Asian stereotypes show is that the vast majority of these jokes are not about race at all, they are about culture. Asian, Black, or White racial characteristics just make people more identifiable as belonging to a certain cultural heritage. Here are a couple of specifically White racial/cultural jokes from Family Guy, but you can also find plenty of jokes based on stereotypes of other Western countries and a great many about my own:

Besides, much of the comedy that revolves around using stereotypes these days makes fun of the people who really believe they reflect the behaviour of everyone in a particular group and use it as a means to discriminate, as much if not more so than the group they seem to be mocking.

Western Culture Rebels against Censorship, Thrives on Disobedience, and Enjoys Disrespecting People Who Want to be Respected (at least in principle)
Of course, there is the historical and power dynamic at work here, which makes the whole situation so volatile and it should not be over-looked. Non-Whites will argue that the history of the world makes it a fair bit easier for White people to take a joke about either their race or cultural heritage and there is no doubt this is true. The scales are not balanced, it is simply not fair. The problem is that the world is not fair; how are we to balance the scales? Have an age where Black and Asian people enslave, impoverish, and belittle White people? Would this then make it fair on both sides, so we can start afresh and not worry about joking around with each other? This is not how the world works and not how it moves forward and I realise this is all very easy to say as a White guy, but you can't get around it.

It probably is true that many people from Western countries (again especially if they are White) have a slight superiority complex, particularly when it comes to non-Western cultures, so how can people of other cultures and races get past all of that? Complain to a culture that values freedom of speech and disobedience to authority that, "You can't say that", "It is not fair", "That's not funny", or "We demand you stop and be more respectful." It sounds horrible to say, but this is just not realistic when it comes to comedy. Such things will only fuel the flames and are like a red rag to a bull for many. The ironic thing is that most of the calls for censorship of sensitive material regularly come from Western far-left liberals on the other culture's behalf and it doesn't realise that it simply encourages it even further. Like a vicious circle, the more offended they get, the more they have to be offended about and the more other cultures become the butt of jokes.

Some of the Reasons for Making Fun of Others are Down to Insecurity
This is following the same line of argument as the people who make fun of and bully gay people being the most likely to be closet homosexuals. Unfortunately, race is still an issue for people in the world and culture also, so with this in mind the rise of the East may have unsettled more than a few Westerners and perhaps especially Americans, who have held the honor of belonging to the richest and most powerful nation for a while now (I have certainly noticed more Asian-dissing comedy in the US than the UK). When joking around goes too far or when racial or cultural comedy is taken too seriously, we can often expose jealousies, fears, and insecurities, which are present in many people with regard to Asians and Asian countries. A realisation that this is indeed the case in Asian communities may well help them soften the blows, provide piece of mind and indeed aid them in fighting back.

Try not to be Too Serious or Over-React

Personally, I was a little shocked at the recent reaction to a group of young people dressing-up as the Asiana pilots at Halloween. The article I have linked was so pathetic that it almost served as comedy itself, especially as the writer obviously couldn't see the irony in his little flow diagram at the end. I don't think there was really any harm in wearing what they did, but I am pretty damn sure it didn't deserve the attention and general vitriol that it got either. In a more recent example, Katy Perry's embarrassing, but harmless performance at the American Music Awards garnered a similar reaction and calls of racism, culturalism or at least disrespect. Both serve to show-up what is an over-sensitivity towards issues of race and culture. This over-exaggerated response of outrage clouds minds to more serious issues caused by a shocking level of ignorance among many people. I believe this is because of lack of dialogue about the problem of racism down to political correctness and social taboos.

When it comes to comedy at least, making fun of others is pretty much the norm, it isn't going to go away and if you really think about what makes you laugh on a day to day basis, no one should wish it to disappear. All one needs do is acknowledge it as comedy and not fact and therefore treat everyone you come across as a separate individual, without prejudice. The argument is, however, that allowing such comedy just reinforces people's stereotypes of others. What the factors above tell us though, is that getting angry and trying to ban a brand humour merely is the best way of perpetuating it, promoting it, encouraging it, making it a lot more interesting and funny, and stops people from having serious debates about it and learning from it.

"A joke is not a joke unless it is at the expense of someone else." - Unknown

For comedy to be effective, one need only pick up on patterns of behaviour in others, and generalisations of this kind can offend, but I think we are all going to have to live with it and at the end of the day.

There is however, a time and a place for the more edgy and possibly offensive kinds of comedy. Racial or cultural jokes have no place on the news for example. More responsibility and care must be taken and I do seriously wonder sometimes whether Western news media are doing a good enough job in this department, let alone other TV programs that are meant to be more family orientated like X-Factor, but we will leave that for another day. When you tune in to a show like Family Guy, you should expect that some of the material is going to be offensive to some people, when you go to watch a stand-up comedian like Ricky Gervais, Billy Connolly, or Jimmy Carr you should expect the same (sorry, I don't know many stand-up comedians of other nationalities).

"I have always thought of humour as a key ingredient to getting along with anyone and I think this also applies between groups. When we can make fun of and laugh at each other, without worrying too much about offending each other, this is often a show of acceptance, respect, and generally liking someone and being friendly. In fact, jokes at other's expense are often a test and an invitation to join the group and to test the water as to whether we can trust the other person, especially in men."

There will of course be examples of jokes that are genuinely insulting and done for the purpose of maintaining power or just simply being nasty. Sometimes outrage is necessary, but we don't need many of the over-blown reactions common in Western culture at the moment in matters of comedy and entertainment. It does us no favours in ridding the world of prejudice. Putting social pressure on controversial statements or words in the form of social taboos had an effect, it reduced prejudice and discrimination and raised consciousness, but now it is time to move on and be able to talk openly and honestly about race and culture to take equality and friendship between our fellow human beings to the next level. Comedy often thrives on blunt honesty and could be the best way to set us on the path to a better relationship between the races and cultures.

12 comments:

Posts like these make me think that it's impossible for some white men to even attempt to see things from the perspective of a person of color. Without a lifetime of experiencing race-related jabs, the kind that incrementally wear on the soul, they are incapable of processing the fact that to people of color, culture and race are sensitive issues, because they are simultaneously personal and unavoidable. These same men, when confronted by people of color, act defensive, ask for specific examples of their racial insensitivity and explain the validity of their arguments, never understanding that when it comes to issues involving whether or not a person of color is offended, the non-poc's opinions are the ones that simply do not matter. This is so difficult for these people to understand, because they are simply not used to the idea that they don't have the final say in matters of importance.

Keeping that in mind, I assume that you will read this comment and dismiss it as a misguided attempt to troll, find it irrelevant to this particular post, or simply just a false statement that you can destroy with a blitzkrieg of facts and "white mansplaining". I'll just end with one request: Please, please stop writing posts involving race and racism, because you are tragically clueless and apparently, can never learn from those who have tried and failed to educate you on the subject. You simply don't understand and can apparently never understand and are starting to come across as a repugnant dolt, which I don't think you actually are. I suspect that you are even a rather nice and intelligent person, but when it comes to matters like these, you seriously need to educate yourself before you speak. I'd sign this post off by adding that I am a woman of color, but as I suspect that you will disregard my opinion in favor of your presumably far superior one, it would probably be a useless attempt at validating the point I'm trying to make. I'm just expressing my annoyance at once again reading a post written by someone who has no idea what he's talking about, but regards himself as an expert of sorts.

I don't regard myself as an expert, just a musing honest guy. Could certainly be a repugnant dolt, as you say, but I think you are being a little unfair on me with some rather broad generalisations. How could I ever educate myself as a White man unless I put my opinions out there? That is the whole point of freedom of speech as far as I can see.

What I really want though is to learn why you think this and what it is exactly that you are disagreeing with. If I may, I find I get a lot of responses like yours that are mostly a long offended rants. I am left not really understanding what it is I wrote that deserved such a response. I am really being genuine, I want to learn because if I really am as horrible as you have painted me out to be, I would like to change.

Who wouldn't be against racial insensitivity? I am certainly against it, however, what I am arguing is simply where to draw lines. I would be really curious to know, as a black woman, what your opinion would be on racial or cultural comedy? Is all comedy making fun of black people off the table? Does that then mean all comedy against all races is off the table? Practically speaking I don't know how this is realistic or desirable.

I would really love you to point out exactly what I said you don't agree with, because I am struggling with your comment. Maybe I could never understand, like you say, but if you could pick out some of what I wrote and critique it for me it would be much appreciated.

"These same men, when confronted by people of color, act defensive, ask for specific examples of their racial insensitivity and explain the validity of their arguments..."

"I would really love you to point out exactly what I said you don't agree with, because I am struggling with your comment".

I had a feeling you were going to take my previous post as a long-winded rant, easy on offense and hard on logic, most definitely lacking in specific, concrete examples. I knew that you would perceive it that way, because my criticism was of your entire post and posts that you have previously written. The reason why you "get a lot of responses like yours that are mostly a long offended rants" is that you write about race, racism and cultural issues, give your opinions on why it makes sense for people of color to react in different ways than they do and then tout these ideas as part of your learning experience. It's a general problem that causes broad offense.

I'm not going to point out specific problematic phrases, when it is the sentiment behind your approach to tackling such issues that is the problem in itself. All I can recommend is that you hold off on the opinions and maybe embrace asking questions, immerse yourself in the histories and personal narratives of people of color. Read some of the blogs and links that your harshest critics have provided you. Open your eyes, ears, mind and heart and give a proper listen. Listen to how people of color relay their experiences and hold off on making any judgements. It's like I said before, educate yourself. Give yourself the ability to understand why people react negatively with what you describe as "broad generalisations", because when you do, then you'll be ready to engage in real and substantiated discourse.

That's really all I can recommend. If you're still not getting it and really just want to know what I, as a Black woman (never specified in initial comment, but nonetheless assumed), think of jokes about Black people and racial and cultural comedy in general, then I bid you good day. There are other blogs that I can read.

This is absolutely why it is necessary to quote me and respond to specifically what I have written because I think you have misinterpreted what I wrote. I think this is why people make long offended rants and I think it is important to pin-point exactly what causes the offence. I think why what I am writing is causing broad offence in some people is because they are assuming I am trying to send a message that I am not. I think this reaction is caused by the taboo of race and culture causing only a narrow band of discourse that is acceptable and this harms progress in building a more equal world (exactly what I was trying to say in the post).

I apologise for assuming you were of black racial origin, my mistake, but as a 'person of color' then what kind of comedy upsets you? What do you mean by people of colour by the way? I have never written anything outside of Asian racism and prejudice, although the principles often work for other races also. Does people of colour just mean 'non-White'?

I think you need to bear in mind that I am talking specifically about comedy in the entertainment industry, mainly on TV, in this post that is labeled as comedy. As I mentioned with the X-Factor example, I have no patience for what people think of as comedy on the street by making fun of individuals, racial jibes, name calling, etc. As I said, this is an example of discrimination and causes real harm. I also criticised when TV shows that were not labeled as comedy, or even family comedy shows, attempt racial or cultural comedy. I think this is where you may be misunderstanding me. I am not advocating making fun of individuals and neither of groups in comedy outside of specifically labeled comedy shows.

I have read the blogs, seen the links and yet still no one can pull a quote from my writing and explain specifically to me what is so offensive. I think this is really important to be able to do. Anyone can say to someone else go and read this and that, and I have, but you are criticising me, so I need some examples of what I am writing that is so bad. That would help me alleviate my ignorance, if that is my problem, much more quickly. The fact that people aren't doing this tends to make me think it is they who need to read more carefully. But I could be wrong, prove it by quoting and explaining, if my entire post is bad, it should be easy to find examples. This quote sums everything up quite nicely i think:

"Give yourself the ability to understand why people react negatively with what you describe as "broad generalisations", because when you do, then you'll be ready to engage in real and substantiated discourse."

In other words, the secret is still out there for me to discover, something I still can't grasp, but no one is going to tell me. These are easy words, I could say this about anyone who I am angry with and don't agree with and it is a tactic in debate to make the other person look bad. I think I do understand why people get upset; it is a sensitive subject and people leap to conclusions that I never write because of it. They then write long replies to me saying how upset they are and then when I point out to give me an example of actually what I wrote, they can't and then they have put so much time and effort into being upset that they can't let go. Think I am wrong about this? Prove it and I will apologise and take it back.

I think that you do yourself a disservice by building up these 'quote me directly' defences. Surely you can, through reading what you wrote, and then reading what anon wrote....somehow piece together what they are saying.

I don't understand how you can't see that people can disagree with your thesis, argument, and logic without needing to quote a pithy sentence or two to make them right. This is the third time you've gone with this whole "quote me" defence.

What if EVERYTHING you wrote was wrong? Would they need to quote the whole blog?

You can't see how white guys like us might think that the 'asian women can't drive' jokes are fucking hilarious, but to an asian woman being told that she can't drive...because she's asian...and a woman...for the one millionth time...is actually really fucking frustrating and not in any way funny? When some cockhead that you work with calls you a 'rice king' for having an asian wife...just remember how funny race based jokes are...especially when he's the 20th fuckwit in your office who's decided to make that joke...or the one about 'yellow fever'. Hilarious stuff...and I guarantee you that you'll hear both references working in Australia. I did.

As I said to the other commenter, I do not condone jokes at individual's expense, i.e. people at work making fun of your Asian wife or people in the street shouting jokes at someone personally. The example I gave in the post was of the Dutch x-factor judge. Totally out of order, it is discrimination and offends people personally, when they had no knowledge it would happen. What I argued for was specifically comedy in the media as entertainment, like Family Guy for example, about general groups of people, not poking fun at individuals. If you tune into a comedy show like Family Guy, you should expect the jokes to get a little controversial. You cannot expect a racial or cultural joke about you personally while walking down the street. This is a misunderstanding you and the other commenter had after reading this post. I know as well as anyone how annoying random nitwits who think they are being funny can be very disvisive and cause genuine offence.

"What if EVERYTHING you wrote was wrong?" Well as I said, it should be easy to pull out one example. I think it is silly to suggest they would need to quote the whole blog.

The reason why I keep asking for direct quotes is that I can't piece together why they are upset, otherwise I would. From what they write, I think they are reading what is not there, what I never wrote, as you have in your comment.

PS: Thanks for the wikipedia link; I noticed it said the term is primarily used in the US, which is probably why I was unsure of its meaning.

OK...but shows like Family Guy are where these dickholes that say stupid shit too you on the street get the idea that being a racist dickhole is incredibly funny. "Oh, on Family Guy they said that Asian women can't drive! Mega lols! Here's Burndog, his partner's Asian!" they think....and then..."Burndog, how did you get to work? I hope your missus didn't drive you, because we all know women can't drive....especially Asian women!" then three or four nearby colleagues nod their head and chuckle and I'm left not knowing whether to shit or wind my watch.

Popular culture normalises shit. If people see racist shit...it makes it seem more normal...and less out of order.

I would still throw up a few counter arguments; just like violence in video games has been shown not to increase violence in real life it is quite possible that a show like Family Guy makes no real difference and the people who shout abuse on the streets would do so anyway. However, I could easily be persuaded that this is wrong. I don't think I have heard of any studies about this.

I agree racial or cultural jokes in comedy are not ideal, but practically though, I don't know how you can stop comedy like this. Banning it just won't work because as I said in the post, comedy itself thrives on walking the line and people enjoy rules being broken.

What I am really arguing for is the ability to make generalisations of groups of people (in the form of jokes in this case) but zero-tolerance of the singling-out or discrimination of individuals based on these generalisations of a possble group to which they might belong. As I have said before individuals vary and should always be treated as individuals with respect. Also, no prejudice or discrimination should be enshrined in law on groups of people because of this varying of individuals within any identifiable group of people.

OK, I think there another side to the whole so called racism against Asians. And that is some of their behaviours and attitudes evoke hostilities in those that come into contact with them.

You see, the thing about Asians, and many other immigrants from non Christian culture is that they generally have attitudes that carry over from their belief systems from their own culture, attitudes that generally are considered unacceptable in the West, and rightly so! For example, I noticed many Asians ( including Koreans, I know you probably wont like me saying this, since your wife is Korean, but truth is the truth, hence I will say it) tend to have discriminatory attitudes toward those who are more likely to be marginalized in society, such as gays and those who suffers from disability.

And out of the different nationalities I have met, mainland Chinese are the worst, but Korean are only slightly better.

They seem to think that those groups deserves to be treated like second class citizens. And their behaviours certainly reflect their attitudes.

I remember years ago I was having conversation with a friend of mine who suffers from serious depression and was and still is struggling because it. I remember she was telling about issues she was having with her sickness benefits at that time, and there was this Asian girl ( she looked Chinese) immediately shot my friend a look of intense disgust, that typifies what I call Asian attitude.

What is ironic is Asian immigrants generally have problems with people with disabilities who are receiving government benefits, yet themselves are by far the most shameless ( along with Indians) when it comes to abusing welfare systems of countries that they are suppose to contribute to as immigrants.

Not to mention many of them ( particular those come from mainland China) are generally very rude and inconsiderate in the way they relate to those them.

Sure, racism is wrong, but it does not change the fact that they themselves have a part to play in this too.

It is like couple of years ago there were a trend here in Australia of physical assaults on Indians, I cant condone that, but one have to wonder that out all races here in Australia, why would Indian be singled out?

The way I look at it, those Asian immigrants need to learn some manners and adjust their attitudes when they come to someone's else country, and if they want to behave asshole, then they can and should GO HOME!

I think your last line is a bit extreme, but I think there is a big debate to be had about immigration into countries, Western countries in particular. What I see in the UK is mass immigration changing the country too much and causing conflicts. The fact is that in Western culture conflict will occur more often because we are so tolerant of what people say and do from other cultures when they come to live in our own. We are too tolerant to the point that when some immigrants break laws, they are not prosecuted because of the colour of their skin or their culture. A recent issue being Female Genital Mutilation in the UK.

I see it much less an issue of race and more an issue of clashing cultures; it could just be that placing people of different cultures in the same space is a recipe for disaster. I think this is true especially when people are afraid of speaking out about cultural issues for fear of being labelled a racist, particularly when people native to that country are afraid. I think this is what is happening in the UK.

While I think you perhaps go a little too far in your comment, I think it is important to hear out views like yours and I am not in the least bit offended by what you say, despite having an Asian wife.

In Korea, at least, I do think many Koreans do have strong discriminatory attitudes to those marginalised or less favourable minorities, I agree.

While I agree with you about some people from certain countries or cultures bringing a lot of abuse upon themselves - I can think of Islam in the UK and Europe - I think sometimes it is just brute racism. For example, I don't think I have ever heard any stories in the UK about Far East Asians causing trouble, they do seem to place few demands on the culture they come into. I can't think of any issue with Koreans in Australia, but I have heard about a number of attacks on Koreans there, including a savage murder of a 19 year old in Brisbane a few weeks ago. There does not appear to be anything that Koreans have done to bring these sort of attacks on themselves.